Guardian leader admits journalists must share the blame for spin

Today’s Guardian has a surprisingly thoughtful leader on yesterday’s Conservative Party story about the increase in spending on ‘government spin’. In a balanced leader it starts by saying “There are large dollops of, er, spin in the Conservative claim….”

It correctly points out that the headline figure of 3,200 is ‘spin’ as 44% aren’t even employed by the government, but by other public bodies and the remaining 1,800 includes not just press officers but also others working in public relations, advertising and marketing.

It also acknowledges that an increase is actually a good thing as it gives citizens better access to information about the work of the state.

And it finishes on my own favourite theme that the media must put its own house in order as the increase in spin is partially a result of “sensationalism, over-simplification and what the German journalist JÃ¼rgen KrÃ¶nig calls the adjectival degradation of British journalism…. Journalists need to be infused with the awareness that journalists, as well as politicians, can be part of the problem. But as yesterday’s reporting showed, there is precious little sign of that.”

My main criticism of the article is that one could be led to think that The Guardian is above all that! More media spin?